As somebody who often took his children to work, I can relate to Adam Laroche, who “retired” from baseball the other day.

Laroche quit the Chicago White Sox after being told by his general manager to “dial it back” about bringing his 14-year-old son to workouts and the clubhouse every day during spring training.

He has been getting support from current and former teammates, who insist baseball is a “family game.” It must be – Laroche’s father and brother have also played in the majors. Drake Laroche quite likely has great third-generation genes.

It’s good to encourage people to enter the family business. I took all three of our kids on assignments with me.One of the proudest moments in my career was in 2000 during the Yankees’ playoff series in Seattle. While chatting with Bernie Williams, I looked around the clubhouse and saw our daughter, Laura, then a columnist in Seattle, chatting with her old friend, Tino Martinez, and I saw my son, David, then working for a web site, chatting with Paul O’Neill.(Our third child, Corinna, a lawyer, has also worked in and around journalism much of her career.)

Still, it’s tricky, bringing children into a clubhouse. The Griffey family discovered that in 1983 when Ken Griffey Sr. brought his two sons to Yankee Stadium.

Billy Martin, who had his mood swings, became angry with a small knot of players’ sons romping in the narrow hallways of the old Yankee Stadium and had a staff member tell the boys to vanish.

Junior, who was around 13 at the time, never denied his grudge against the Yankees. His Seussian smile when he scored the winning run in the epic 1995 series with the Yankees undoubtedly came from sheer joy, not from old feuds, but still….During his free-agent days, he never entertained offers from the Yankees, even though Billy was long gone.

Is baseball a family game? More than it used to be. I don’t recall sons visiting the cramped clubhouse in the old Stadium when Mickey Mantle was conducting replays of his other night games.

Clubhouses were often more Rabelaisian than today. Much of that mercifully disappeared after female reporters made their long-deserved arrival and most ball players of normal I.Q. made the major discovery that one large well-placed towel could solve most privacy issues.

Plus, the newer clubhouses in New York and elsewhere have inner sanctums where players can shower, and get stuff off their minds.But is it a good idea to have sons -- let’s say sons for the sake of discussion -- wandering around the clubhouse and field all the time during spring training? My feeling is that players do have the right to bond, talk baseball, hash things out, even cuss at each other.

And I do mean cuss. In 1980, I brought my 10-year-old son to an exhibition in Bradenton, Fla., home of the champion “we-are-fam-a-lee” Pittsburgh Pirates.My friend Bill Robinson, after his rough Yankee days, was having hard-earned success in his later years. Mary Robinson invited us all over for dinner that night. But before that, Bill invited Dave into the clubhouse, after most of the players had showered and dressed.

Dave had been in a clubhouse or two and knew about players. As we sat around Bill’s locker, there was a loud noise from the shower area. Two of the biggest stars – no names mentioned – emerged from the showers, still wet, wearing nothing but very large and shiny bling, not fighting but conducting a philosophical discussion, using words Dave had surely heard before but never in such imaginative pairings and repetition and volume.

Bill was a family guy. In his measured voice he said, “Uh, David, maybe you better wait outside.”

Times have changed. Clubhouses are larger, more accommodating to a family presence. But as my late friend Bill Robinson knew, sometimes it may also be good for children to wait outside.

Very, very interesting column, George. I'd call it an Exhibit A in why sound bite headlines can never substitute for experienced journalism. It can even cut through a "cute kid" headline. Making us think and not just "emote" is like adult spinach....good for us!

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Hansen Alexander

3/19/2016 06:50:30 pm

Great back ground stuff, George, and a pleasure to read. What strikes me as odd is that La Rouche has obviously been taking his boy inside the club house for a long time and the new prohibition sounds as if it came out of the blue.

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George Vecsey

3/20/2016 01:45:11 pm

Guys, thanks. Couple of second thoughts:
---Apparently, Laroche was not told to keep the kid away, but rather "dial it back." I think a team management has the right to suggest limits.
---I have seen references to "home-schooling," which to me is a term for not wanting your children to go to school, period. (It may be educational, or it may be social or political statement.) But it appears Drake is enrolled in school, and takes his work with him during spring training. Having done the same with our three kids -- time in Florida with Mets or Yankees, or even an entire April in France when they were young, just because, I agree with the Laroche judgment on that. Still, what does "dial it back" mean? Reason to "retire?" Maybe he wanted to.
I knew a guy who got the first sour response in his entire career from a new and inscrutable boss, and retired ASAP. It happens.
I still think clubhouses should have some space for players only.
Best, GV

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Hansen Alexander

3/20/2016 02:19:17 pm

Yeah, George, but I would think "some space" would be the places that are now off limits to the press too, toilets, sauna, etc. Given the long tradition of letting kids in the clubhouse, a GM or other official should not have a blank check to decide what is off limits depending on his mood. That is just plain being mean. And such team officials should be fired, IMO.

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George Vecsey

3/21/2016 09:00:29 am

Hansen, the GM will be fired, if he loses the team.
It surely was handled badly.
Readers point out that Laroche had a dismal year. Maybe he wanted out, psychologically. Having your kid on the field all the time might indicate ambiguity about a very competitive field.
GV

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John McDermott

3/21/2016 07:42:18 am

Billy Martin was simply one of the worst people I've ever encountered in professional sports. He made Pete Rose look like the Pope.

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George Vecsey

3/21/2016 09:03:01 am

John, you saw him up close in the Bay Area, I would guess.
He had his good moments -- including knowledge of history, loyal to friends, sometimes kind and funny.
But he was on a downward spiral around the Boss.
Imagine if he had been nice to Junior Griffey?
GV

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Elliott Kolker

3/23/2016 10:08:52 am

Laroche Family Values: "Mendoza Line" Nobility
"Larouche Family Values
For the Larouche Family,
The Village Elliott: 3/17/16

Selfish to think his offspring should be
Work space companion permanently,
What if some other dad
Bring his kid, and kid’s bad,
Disrupting his work place family?

When I first arrived in West Marin in 1980, I worked in a restaurant with a number of single mothers who used the workplace to babysit their young children. While one had a sixteen-year=old son who was a conscientious worker and became one of my best ever friends, he was an anomaly. Most of the kids were much younger than my friend. They mostly got in the way, were distracting or disruptive. Mostly it was the mother's fault for coddling their children at the expense of their work obligations, sending a bad message to their kids.

They were their own long time local support group, it was them against all others, including me, their co-worker. As a new-to-town single, non-father, it was demanded that I be 1000% behind them,an, if I ever suggested their kid wasn't special and their presence was less that a total joy, when they were constantly in the way, I was dismissed as "an insensitive, no-nothing kid-hating misogynistic, selfish man trampling on their rights" as they trampled on mine.

Those kids are now long grown; some have their own family. Like most of us, they survived their parents’ self-interests. Some perpetuate the tradition, along with the myth that their kids are their playmate. In my opinion, the one who grew into the best family man/father, is my friend, the once and future anomaly.

I'm too cynical to think Drake is anything but a pawn to his father's prideful need for constant contact. I'm too cynical to think if Daddy were still as productive as he was at his best, he wouldn't walk away from that contract. He knows he isn't going to earn that money, or play much, but won't admit it and say, "I've earned enough, won't earn this year's pay, so I'm willingly walking away to spend time with my son without disrupting the team."

Would the White Sox have made the same request if he were still his productive best? Well, I think Kenny William's request was reasonable; so yes, I think they would. However, they screwed it up by tolerating it last year and not dealing with it off-season rather than creating as a major disruption in Spring. I think every team that permitted it did the same. It is not like, at his best, Larouche was ever Barry Bonds.

Why am I such a grouch and anti-kinder? I’m not, I just think the Clubhouse belongs to the team. In some way, it is like the Teachers’ Lounge in high school., a refuge from the outside, a place to recharge, not be subject to other player’s associations, particularly families.

In Baseball is a Funny Game, Joe Garagiola had a chapter about ballplayers' families: After a quick search on line I could not verify quotes, so these are examples of my memories

In discussing how various teams allocate tickets for ballplayers' wives. Some seat them together because of their common interests. Some scatter them around deliberately to avoid a situation such as: Your husband's error cost my husband the win which blew his bonus, etc.; which in turn would create marital issues which would find their way back to the clubhouse.

Same sort of thing with ballplayers bringing their children into the clubhouse: Little Johnny somehow pushes the button of the slumping first baseman. Everyone knows to avoid him in that mood, except Little Johnny; Slumper screams at kid, kid cries to daddy, now a problem between Big Johnny and Slumper. We also have potential Family issues, particularly if one of the principal's wives doesn't like how hubby handled the situation.

Or: Pitcher is the most gregarious, fun-lover on team...except the day he is scheduled to start. Then, don't get near him. Nobody does, except Little Johnny, who met pitcher in clubhouse on a day he didn't start. Johnny doesn't know not to approach his "friend." Guess what happens next.

Imagine some ballplayer foolish enough to bring his kid with him on the day Lefty Grove or Bob Gibson was scheduled to start..

.Or the kid decided he wanted to sit in Barry Bonds' lounge chair and nods out while Bonds is in the trainer’s room, and once through, can’t wait to collapse in his lounge chair immediately.

Re: Dugout: Little Johnny doesn't know that is Prima Dona's seat that he must ALWAYS sit in. Prima Dona, in slump, with bases-loaded, no outs, hits into 1-2-3 DP. Growls back to dugout where he sees Little Johnny sitting in his seat...

An

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Elliott H Kolker

3/23/2016 11:06:06 pm

Originally posted with previous comment. It was cut off:

What if Little Johnny, curious about the romance of alcohol, in a confluence of youthful indiscretion and unexpected opportunity, decides to steal Jobu's rum? As we know, "It is very bad to steal Jobu's rum;...very, very bad

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Coach Joe Mihalich, center, runs practice

OLD JOCKS CHEERMy Hofstra pals went to a practice -- and later the new players won a thriller near buzzer. ​Please see:https://nationalsportsmedia.org/news/my-alma-mater-thrills-some-old-players-